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Lee Teng-hui Acquitted in NSB Confidential Fund Case
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 2013/11/18
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Lee Teng-hui Acquitted in NSB Confidential Fund Case
Source: Taipei newspapers November 18, 2013
The Taipei District Court acquitted former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) of charges of corruption and money-laundering in the National Security Bureau (NSB) confidential fund case.
Lee Teng-hui was acquitted because the collegiate bench concluded that the prosecution could not prove that the former President had prior knowledge that NSB confidential funds had been misappropriated or how the funds flowed. Moreover, given the fact that Yin Tsung-wen (殷宗文), then head of the NSB, another defendant in the case, passed away in 2003 long before trial, so there was no way for Yin to confront Lee Teng-hui in order to uncover the truth.
The court sentenced Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), Lee’s former aide, to two years and eight months in prison with deprivation of political rights for three years on charges of embezzlement of public assets and money laundering.
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) under the Prosecutor-General’s Office indicted Lee and Liu in June 2011 after the prosecutors discovered that Lee and Liu had allegedly embezzled a total of NT$ 250 million (approximately US$7.8 million) from the NSB confidential fund, which was later used to purchase an office building for the Taiwan Research Institute(台灣綜合研究院), a private research institution founded by Lee.
Liu was given a lenient sentence as the collegiate bench concluded that Liu had not pocketed the money and the Taiwan Research Institute had later returned the money to the government.
The SIU prosecutors said that they would decide whether or not to appeal Lee’s acquittal ruling after studying the court’s decision.
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